Alumnus Neeral Mehta (‘13) said that he and three of his  friends  suddenly burst into song, singing “We are the Champions” by Queen as they concluded their 56th consecutive hour of playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Nintendo Wii.

According to Mehta, this was in an attempt to be the Guinness world record holders for the longest consecutive amount of time playing a violent video game. According to Guinness World Records, current record holder Anthony Lysiak achieved the record in May 2012 after gaming for 48 hours. Mehta said that when he heard this, he was immediately determined to beat it.

To conquer his goal, Mehta recruited three friends, Glenbrook South alumni (‘13) Tim Kirby, Demitri Kotsinis and Jimmy Binder, to attempt the challenge with him. Together, they chose to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

In this multiplayer game, the gamer chooses an animated character with which to fight. Across different stages, the characters, each equipped with different fighting techniques, battle until one is declared a winner.

Guinness World Records’ rules permit five minutes of break time for every hour of gaming. This includes bathroom breaks and time to eat and sleep.

From 6 p.m. on July 5 to 6 a.m. on July 6, the gamers played without any breaks. Afterwards, the gamers took multiple 30 minute breaks.

“We were also able to accumulate the minutes we didn’t use and save them up to provide a bigger rest time,” Kirby said.

According to Mehta and Kirby, the most challenging time period to stay awake was from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. on the second day. To stay awake, they yelled at each other, blasted electronic dance music and consumed energy bars, Red Bull and vegetables.

“[Vegetables are important because] you can’t sugar up until the end,” Mehta said.

According to Mehta, at one point during the gaming marathon Kotsinis’ father went to Mehta’s basement where the game was being played. He began to list off symptoms of sleep deprivation. He talked about dry eyes, high blood pressure, hallucinations and depression.

“We didn’t believe [Kotsinis’ dad] at first, but we started to experience some of these [symptoms] later in the marathon,” Kirby said.

After the 40th hour, Mehta said he started to have hallucinations.

“One of my friends was telling me about the pizza world record,” said Mehta. “So, during hour 40, I thought Super Smash Bros. [Brawl] was about making a pizza. It was odd.”

Kirby said he experienced hallucinations while playing the “Hyrule Temple Field” stages.

“Part of the map morphed into this fisherman with a hat. Weird, I know, but that’s what I saw,” Kirby said.

According to Mehta, the gaming was a blur.

Although Kirby and Mehta forgot parts of the experience, an audience was able to remember it. On an online stream, about 4,000 unique viewers watched the attempt take place, and about 50 people came to Mehta’s house to cheer him and his friends on.

“You would think that we would get bored of the game, but we changed up the courses and we each played with each character twice,” Kirby said.

In addition to submitting his attempt to Guinness World Records, Mehta also sent it to record company RecordSetter.

Neither would comment on this story, stating that they do not disclose information on pending records.

Although he is still waiting for the confirmation of beating the record, Mehta said that no matter what, he feels accomplished.